Quill pig is another name for a porcupine. Porcupines are unattractive and unpopular, but, as animals go, and unlike eagles, elephants, and donkeys, they are reasonably harmless good neighbors that mind their own business. Here's where we can talk about being good neighbors and why it's eternally important.

Monday, April 6, 2015

If
you’re like me, you’ve spent many hours and a lot of money over
the last few weeks accounting for every dollar you’ve dealt with
over the last year. If you own a business, you’ve also done the
same thing four other times during the year. I should think you’d
be in the market for a better way to get things done.

When
you go to buy bread or to the circus, the grocer and the venue owner
don’t ask you to account for the money you don’t give
them. The grocer doesn’t force you to buy mopheads or gossip
magazines, and the circus master doesn’t tell you whom you may and
may not invite to parties at your home.

If
Auto Zone and NAPA were competing for customers for their roads, I
don’t think they’d have speed traps or demand money from people
who park with the driver’s side of the car next to the curb. If ADT
or State Farm were my first and only line of protection against
burglars and terrorists—yours might be ADS or GEICO, and chances
are they’d be working with my guys on some things—I would expect
them to make sure I didn’t let my three-year-old kill his mother
with my shotgun. If Walmart or Lt. Uhura down the street ran the
nearest school, they would get my money only if I wanted to give it
to them.

And
for sure none of them would make dealing with them so difficult that
I’d need to hire an accountant to get me through the paperwork.

As
sure as ends never justify means, such a society would be better than
what we’ve got, let alone the one we’re headed for. I’m not
sure how to get there from here, but there’s no point finding out
as long as you’re happy to have the taxman help himself to your
money, your time, and your private life.